Islam in Hong Kong

Jamia Mosque, the first mosque in Hong Kong

According to the 2016 census, Islam is practised by 4.1% of the population of Hong Kong, or about 300,000 Muslims. Of this number, 50,000 are Chinese, 150,000 are Indonesians and 30,000 are Pakistanis, with the rest from other parts of the world.[1] The vast majority of Muslims in Hong Kong are Sunni.[2]

About 12,000[3] of the Muslim families in Hong Kong are 'local boy' families, Muslims of mixed Chinese and South Asian ancestry descended from early Muslim South Asian immigrants who took local Chinese wives (Tanka people) and brought their children up as Muslims.[4][5] Hui Muslims from Mainland China also played a role in the development of Islam in Hong Kong, such as Kasim Tuet from Guangzhou, one of the pioneers of Muslim education in the city, for whom the Islamic Kasim Tuet Memorial College is named.[6]

In the new millennium, the largest number of Muslims in the territory are Indonesian, most of whom are female foreign domestic workers. They account for over 120,000 of Hong Kong's Muslim population.[7]

  1. ^ Hong Kong: The Facts - Religion and Custom HKSAR Government Home Affairs Bureau, May 2016.
  2. ^ Wai-Yip Ho (2013). Islam and China's Hong Kong: Ethnic Identity, Muslim Networks and the New Silk Road. Routledge. p. 20. ISBN 9781134098071.
  3. ^ "Hong Kong Muslims Plead for Mosques – Asia-Pacific – News". OnIslam.net. Retrieved 12 May 2014.
  4. ^ Weiss, Anita M. (July 1991), "South Asian Muslims in Hong Kong: Creation of a 'Local Boy' Identity", Modern Asian Studies, 25 (3): 417–53, doi:10.1017/S0026749X00013895, S2CID 145350669
  5. ^ Bosco, Joseph (2004), "Hong Kong", in Ember, Melvin; Ember, Carol R.; Skoggard, Ian (eds.), Encyclopedia of Diasporas: Immigrant and Refugee Cultures Around the World, Volume 2, Springer, pp. 506–514, ISBN 978-0-306-48321-9
  6. ^ Wang Ma, Rosey (2004), "Hui diaspora", in Ember, Melvin; Ember, Carol R.; Skoggard, Ian (eds.), Encyclopedia of Diasporas: Immigrant and Refugee Cultures Around the World, Volume 2, Springer, pp. 113–124, ISBN 978-0-306-48321-9
  7. ^ O'Connor, Paul (2012), "Islam in Hong Kong: Muslims and Everyday Life in China's World City", Hong Kong University Press.